5/20/2020 Saint Michael's Castle - Wikipedia

Coordinates: 59.9404°N 30.3377°E

Saint Michael's Castle

St. Michael's Castle (Russian: Миха́йловский
за́мок, Mikhailovsky zamok), also called the
Mikhailovsky Castle or the Engineers' Castle
(Russian: Инженерный замок, Inzhenerny zamok), is a
former royal residence in the historic centre of Saint
Petersburg, Russia. St. Michael's Castle was built as a
residence for Emperor Paul I by architects Vincenzo
Brenna and Vasili Bazhenov in 1797–1801. It was named
after St. Michael, the patron saint of the Royal family.[1]
The castle looks different from each side, as the
architects used motifs of various architectural styles such
as French Classicism, Italian Renaissance and Gothic. Aerial view of St. Michael's Castle

St. Michael's Castle was built to the south of the Summer

Garden and replaced the small wooden palace of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. Afraid of intrigues and
assassination plots, Emperor Paul I disliked the Winter Palace where he never felt safe. Due to his
personal fascination with medieval knights and his constant fear of assassination, the new royal
residence was built like a castle around a small octagonal courtyard. The building with rounded corners
was surrounded by the waters of the Moika River, the Fontanka River and two specially dug canals (the
Church Canal and the Sunday Canal), transforming the castle area into an artificial island which could
only be reached by drawbridges.

Construction began on 26 February (N.S. 9 March), 1797 and the castle was solemnly consecrated on 8
November 1800, i.e. on St. Michael's Day in the Eastern Orthodox calendar, though finishing work on
the interior continued until March 1801. In 1800, the bronze equestrian Monument to Peter the Great
was set up in front of the castle. This statue had been designed during Peter the Great's lifetime and
later, with the casting being completed in 1747 by the architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli. By order of Paul I,
the inscription "From Great Grandson to Great Grandfather" was made on the pedestal that is
decorated with bas-reliefs depicting scenes of two Russian victories over Sweden during the Great
Northern War.

Paul I was assassinated only 40 nights after he moved into his newly built castle. He was murdered on 12
March 1801, in his own bedroom, by a group of dismissed officers headed by General Bennigsen. The
conspirators forced him to a table, and tried to compel him to sign his abdication. Paul offered some
resistance, and one of the assassins struck him with a sword, and he was then strangled and trampled to
death. He was succeeded by his son, Emperor Alexander I, who was actually in the palace at the time and
was informed of his accession by General Nicholas Zubov, one of the assassins.

After Paul's death, the imperial family returned to the Winter Palace; St. Michael's Castle was abandoned
and in 1823 was given to the army's Main Engineering School (later to become the Nikolayevskaya
Engineering Academy and now the Military Engineering-Technical University). From then on, the
building was known as the Engineers' Castle. Between 1838 and 1843, the Russian writer Fyodor
Dostoyevsky studied as a cadet at the Main Engineering School.

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In the early 1990s, St. Michael's Castle became a branch of the Russian Museum and now houses its
Portrait Gallery,[2] featuring official portraits of the Russian Emperors and Empresses and various
dignitaries and celebrities from the late 17th to the early 20th century.

St Michael's Castle (Southern facade) St Michael's Castle (Western facade)

St Michael's Castle (Northern facade)

See also
Mikhailovsky Palace

References
1. "St. Michael's Castle" (https://petersburgcard.com/en/what-is-included/petersburg-museums/museu
m-palaces/st-michael-castle/). petersburgcard.com. Retrieved 2019-04-04.
2. "St Michael's Castle" (http://en.rusmuseum.ru/mikhailovsky-castle/). en.rusmuseum.ru. Retrieved
2019-04-04.
Pamyatniki architektury Leningrada: Architectural monuments of Leningrad: Glavnoe architekturno-
planirovocnoe upravlenie ispolnitelnogo komiteta Leningradskogo gorodskogo Soveta deputatov

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trudjascichsja, Gosudarstvennaja inspekciya po ochrane pamyatnikov, ed. A.N. Petrov, 4th ed.,
Leningrad : Stroyizdat, 1976.
Nordisk Familjebok, Stockholm: Nordisk familjeboks förlags aktiebolag, 2 ed. 1904.

External links
Photos of St Michael's Castle (https://web.archive.org/web/20070310222555/http://photocity.ru/Albu
m18/idx.php)

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This page was last edited on 20 May 2020, at 02:52 (UTC).

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